1. Technical Field
The present disclosure concerns a wind power installation pylon segment and a wind power installation pylon having a plurality of such pylon segments and a wind power installation having a corresponding pylon. The disclosure further concerns a process for the production of a plurality of such pylon segments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays a modern wind power installation usually includes a foundation on which is arranged a wind power installation pylon carrying a pod in which there is accommodated a generator, the rotor of which is rotated by an aerodynamic rotor for energy generation with a suitable wind. Pylons of such wind power installations can be of heights of over 100 m. Besides steel pylons, concrete pylons consisting of steel reinforced concrete and/or prestressed concrete are frequently used. In that respect the term concrete pylon is used to mean that it is predominantly made from concrete. An upper portion can frequently be made from steel.
Such a pylon is substantially of a tubular shape and usually differs from a strictly cylindrical shape in that it decreases in diameter from the foundation to the pod. Such a concrete pylon is usually constructed from a plurality of precast concrete parts. In a vertical direction such a pylon has a plurality of mutually superposed pylon portions which are usually fixedly braced together in the vertical direction by bracing cables. Each of those pylon portions or at least pylon portions from the lower region of the concrete pylon are composed of outer peripheral casing segments. For example a pylon portion can be composed of two half-shells which basically each form a 180 degrees segment of the pylon portion. Those pylon portions are mostly prefabricated industrially in the form of precast concrete parts and are assembled and joined together on site when constructing the pylon. The need to subdivide the pylon portions into a plurality of segments is usually due to necessary transport of the components from their location of manufacture to the location at which the wind power installation is erected.
Pylon segments of a pylon portion, which can also be referred to as the pylon section, are usually assembled on site at perpendicular joint edges. Portions of the reinforcement project out at those joint edges so that here the segments can be connected together by means of a locking bar. The remaining vertical gap is then mortared.
A disadvantage in this respect is that a quite large amount of manual work is required for connecting the pylon segments together. The mortar filling also hides the danger of corrosion of the reinforcement portions in that region, particularly if the mortaring operation is not effected correctly or is defective. In that respect, mistakes or defects can occur even when the operation is implemented carefully. Such defects can be, for example, enclosed water and air bubbles or capillaries leading outwardly from the reinforcement.
In addition, the positional accuracy that can be achieved with such pylon segments relative to each other is limited and is usually in the range of +10 mm. Furthermore the mortaring operation can be problematical in winter at low temperatures.